Cartwright's Maple Tree Inn

Cartwright's Maple Tree Inn

I have not been to this place because I see it's only open from the beginning of February to the beginning of April but from what I'm seeing on this PBS special about breakfast places, come February I'll be there!! Unlimited buckwheat pancakes and they produce their own maple syrup. Man!! 4321 County Road 15A in Angelica, NY. The Cartwright family has been running it since 1963. Looks like a wonderful example of a long time, popular, family run restaurant. They have a web site.

The buckwheat pancakes are thin and light and fresh every few minutes. Its all you can eat cakes, with a meat (ham or sausage) served family style. The syrup is made right there, with a little gift shop selling mostly syrup or maple candy. It truly IS in the middle of nowhere, so get good directions!!

I met with a group of friends at Cartwright's the last Saturday in March and it totally lived up to my expectations. :) The unlimited buckwheat pancakes are wonderful, thin, light, airy and taste great. The family has always made their own syrup and it too is wonderful. The ham and patty sausage are just typical and because the place is so incredibly busy and the volume of cooking is so huge, they don't serve bacon. They say they are afraid of grease fires. But no matter, have some pancakes with ham, or eggs. They bring an extra plate of pancakes right to the table without anyone asking for them and if you eat all those, they'll bring more. The griddle is the biggest I've ever seen! If you get there late in the morning on a weekend there will be a line but it moves very fast. The place is huge, much larger than it looks from the outside, The parking lot is HUGE. People come from all over the area and then some.

If you are there for dinner and don't want pancakes they serve burgers, ham sandwiches and a hot dog cooked and "simmered in maple syrup". I didn't have one but was told it was great!

They have a small gift shop so you can take pancake mix and syrup home. I saw someone buy a *gallon* container of syrup. You can take a free tour of the basement where they will show you part of the syrup making process. The people are very, very friendly, helpful and make you feel welcome the minute you walk in the door. And there are Cartwright's all over the place. It remains truly a family operation after all these years. They have a web site and a fb page. I don't have enough posts to put up the link but just google Cartwright's Maple Tree Inn. It's in an out of the way area that is somewhat GPS challenged but I put in Allen, New York and was able to get the nearby intersection. Their site also has maps and very detailed directions. They are closed on Mondays and do not take credit cards but have an ATM in the lobby near the little gift shop.